Amazingly, Samsung managed to make the Galaxy S25 Ultra as thin and light as it is, but it comes at the cost of some other capabilities. For example, the venerable S Pen, a longtime fixture in the Galaxy Ultra line, no longer has a Bluetooth chip to facilitate certain features. In a briefing for the latest release of the flagship, Samsung told us and other press that no one was using that thing in the first place, so it decided to scrub it in completely out of line.

In particular, the S Pen no longer works Air Actionsa feature launched with Galaxy Note 10 five years ago. The basis of Air Actions is that you control the screen with the stylus from a distance, either using it as a remote or as a wand. There are gestures that you can “draw” in the air to control the interface from a distance. The S Pen can also be used to sift through your gallery and move back and forward a page in the Samsung browser. It can even be used as a slideshow remote.

If you have a WearOS smartwatch, Samsung or otherwise, you can use the camera shutter shortcut. Samsung still lets you use the open-palm hand gesture to start a countdown for a selfie, too—it’s such a popular gesture that even Google adopted it for the Pixel.

In the grand scheme of things, what the S Pen offers pales in comparison to all of the $1,300 Galaxy S25 Ultra to do now, which includes many new AI abilities and higher resolution wide-angle photography. Dropping the Bluetooth chip helped the Galaxy S25 Ultra shave enough grams for Samsung to appreciate its efforts in chassis thinness. Samsung also kept the handy tracking mechanism that notifies you when you leave the S Pen — Because if you use a phone with dedicated storage for a stylus, you should have an alarm mechanism that reminds you what your ‘ will be left.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra’s S Pen still does everything you want a stylus to do: it draws, takes notes, and lets you point and tap things. You can customize the Air Command menu to show only the abilities you care about most. Screen off memo captures momentary thoughts just by popping out of the pen. There’s even an option to add a second S Pen for duplicating stylus entry.